The goal of the PS-OC initiative is to collectively advance our understanding of the physical laws and principles that shape and govern the emergence of cancer and its behavior at ail scales. The PS-OCs will bring together expert teams from the fields of physics, cancer biology, physical chemistry, mathematics, and engineering to assemble and develop the infrastructure, capabilities, research programs, and the Network required to enable team research converging. the physical sciences with cancer biology. PS-OCs, individually and together, will support and nurture a new trans-disciplinary environment and research that: (1) originates and tests novel, non-traditional physical-sciences based approaches to understanding and controlling cancer; (2) generates orthogonal sets of physical measurements and integrates them with existing knowledge of cancer; and (3) develops and evaluates theoretical physics approaches to provide a comprehensive and dynamic picture of cancer. Ultimately, through coordinated, alternative, trans-Network development and testing of innovative, perhaps non-traditional, approaches to cancer processes, PS-OCs will catalyze and generate new bodies of knowledge and fields of cancer study that identify and define the critical aspects physics, chemistry, and engineering that operate at all levels in cancer processes. We are bringing together a cross section of investigators from the Physical and Life Sciences to participate in the center. This includes five Bay Area organizations with globally recognized and long-standing capabilities and interests in the physical sciences, engineering, and cancer research and treatment. We have also recruited clinical investigators from 2 outside institutions to compliment existing expertise and to extend the translational scope of our projects.